


Flight

by NevermoreWrites



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Rigel Black Chronicles - murkybluematter
Genre: Inspired by The Rigel Black Chronicles, Rigel Black Chronicles Masquerade 2021
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 07:34:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29256795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NevermoreWrites/pseuds/NevermoreWrites
Summary: Harry flies away from England.
Relationships: Arcturus Rigel "Archie" Black & Harriet Potter | Rigel Black, Harriet Potter & Her Parents
Comments: 16
Kudos: 70
Collections: Rigel Black Chronicles Masquerade 2021





	Flight

When Harry left for the American Institute of Magic, Lily had smiled and told her not to spend all day brewing. James then told Harry it would be best if she did none at all and left “the stinky potion track” before she “turned into a bat”. Like every time before, Lily momentarily tensed, fixed her smile a little more, and lightly swatted her husband’s arm.

Harry waited, as she had every time before, for this to be the moment her mother would inform her father that her passion was not a joke, but a reflection of her being, and that a rejection of it was a rejection of her and he should let old grudges go at least this once. 

She said nothing of that sort. 

“Make some friends dear,” she added with a smile. Said smile, already fair, grew beatific as she gestured to James. “You don’t want to be alone forever.”

“Not like that,” he blurted. “No boys, you hear me?”

Harry nodded. After all, Archie was a boy. If the rest were like him, it would be good to avoid them before they got too close.

He had promised no regrets that night, but scarcely an hour later, he snuck back through the floo, sobbing. 

“Harry, we can’t do this. We can’t.”

She had promised to not judge if he had changed her mind, but as Harry sat there, hair shorn and alibis ready, she found her nails digging into her palms under the covers. 

She tilted her head. The look never worked on Archie and it never would, but she adopted it even as her heart fell out of her chest.

“Why?”   
Her paused, making -and promptly breaking- eye-contact.

After a moment, he mumbled, “Don’t know. I just can’t”. He gave her a look of his own, which was similarly inefficient. For all their efforts and grand plans, they were young, and they had always been together. 

Archie had plans to laugh off inquiries into his gender, to study endlessly without being to explain why, and to play pretend until they were adults, but he had not prepared to keep his features steady as Dad discussed Mom. He had not prepared to promise to visit Diana’s favorite spots, to speak to her favorite teachers, and to give her name a new life in a castle he was never to set foot in. 

When it came down to it, he spent the night wondering what was Diana’s legacy- the life she had or the life she could have had. Would she have wanted him to follow her footsteps, or to prevent other families from being struck by the tragedy that took her away as soon as possible?

Perhaps nothing of Diana’s was in the walls of Hogwarts. Perhaps it was all fantasy, and all that was left of his mother was his scattered fading memories and a plaque at St. Mungo’s.

But he would never know if he did not go.

“I just can’t”, he repeated, unable to voice his true thoughts. 

Archie could not lie to her. If he had left for America, he would have gained the skill in time as he watched the Ruse destroy Diana’s true legacy- their family. But he was young, and all too honest, except when it mattered most.

“I just can’t,” he sobbed into her shoulder.

And Harry, prodigious talented Harry, who was going to change the world, traded Rigel for putting a hand on his back.

“It’s okay,” she whispered.

“I understand,” she lied, and pretended that her heart wasn’t shattering.

“Sure dad.” The words came with surprising ease. After all, it was no lie. If she could not trust Archie, how could she trust anyone else? Pursuing any relationship, even friendship, would be silly. It would be best to keep brewing and to plot her future alone. 

James’ eyes narrowed. Harry continued to smile, as if something further inside hadn’t broken. As if bitterness did not grow through the cracks his comments made in their relationship.

She always heard her parents. She knew what they thought about potions, about her. She knew what they did not directly state- that they spent every night hoping she “would grow out of it”, as if her passion was an embarrassing habit that would pass in time. 

She knew her parents, what they said and what they thought. The real question was if they heard her.

Glancing at the clock, Harry saw it was 10:58. The plane boarded at 11:00. It would be best to enter the gate now before it was too late. Still, she hesitated. 

James continued his lecture on the “horrors of men”.

“Fawn, you have to be very careful. Not everyone is what they seem, and I do not want you to be hurt. Promise to be careful.”

She almost smiled at the irony, but the moment passed. In a world where she had not been so close to Hogwarts, perhaps she could have joked in return. 

As it was, the silence hung a little too long. 

“Harry?” 

James dropped his arm mid-gesture, the levity giving way to concern. 

Lily stretched out an arm to wrap her in a hug, but she turned to the gate. 

“I have to go,” she apologized. 

“I will miss you,” she claimed as got further away.

A final shout came before she walked through the gate - “Harry!” - but she did not turn around. 

She did not look back. 

She had spent enough time examining their faces, trying to read their thoughts. It was time they did so in return.

If they continued to call, she did not hear. She would like to think they did, that they called until their voices gave out, that they rushed the gates only to be stopped by an attendant, but if the last few days taught her anything it was that it was dangerous to dream. It made one think things were better than they were, and then nothing changed. 

She found a seat near the front and stared out the window. 

If she was not to play at Archie, there would be no legal consequence in being honest for once.   
James and Lily may run through her veins, but she was a stranger to them now. It was time to drop the pretense that the daughter they wanted existed.

Her sobs were unheard under the roar of the unnecessary engine.

\---

Harry was always meant to fly away from her family. This is the world where she flew from Archie as well.


End file.
